Comments on: Ecommerce roundup - where does online retail stand?

By: iLeher » “We are sitting at the verge of a perfect storm” - Darpan Munjal on ecommerce in India Catching the Internet Wave in India

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 06:05:43 +0000

[...] Ecommerce has been one of the recurring themes here at iLeher. On this topic we have have covered various stats, strategies, and new ventures. The reason why its so interesting to study this area is its at nascent stages, its upcoming and most importantly its rise will create new avenues for generating revenue for Internet companies across the board - including logistics, advertising, transaction processing, referrals and lead generation. I am personally very excited to watch new companies and businesses coming up in this space and observe how this market shapes up. Web 2.0, community sites are all great (and good to see Indian companies are getting noticed), but ecommerce is what will directly impact lives of general people. An example is how it has changed the rules of the game in travel industry. [...]

By: iLeher » How to indianize your ecommerce site?- All about Internet industry in India

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:50:43 +0000

[...] Ecommerce is very important to sustain the growth of Internet. The ecosystem just doesn’t complete without ecommerce. After all that’s where the real money exchange happens between users and businesses. All other revenue models and businesses are just supporting, they cannot stand on their own. For example, there cannot be much expansion in ad revenues, or revenues from affiliates unless customers are ready to buy stuff that businesses are trying to advertise in the first place. We know that it is going to happen. Today or tomorrow, ecommerce will take off. It has happened in travel, it has happened in matrimony, jobs. Online retail is the next important and the biggest sector. There’s already a good number of sites that have decent offerings, but something feels lacking in them. Some of them are better than others in some respects, but none of them seem to be really tailor-made for Indian infrastructure and audience. Here is a list of points that we have come up to make a site better suited for users in the Indian context. [...]

By: iLeher » Movers and Shakers of Year 2006- All about Internet industry in India

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 10:07:15 +0000

[...] Next? Overall, 2006 was an active year full of excitement in the industry among investors, entrepreneurs and of course the users of the Internet themselves. The year has kicked in the enthusiasm required for bootstrapping the so called “Silicon Valley in India“. 2007 is going to be very important to take these early developments to the next level towards realizing the Silicon Valley dream. At the risk of sounding obvious, increase in Internet penetration (esp. broadband) is on the top of my wish list for 2007. Without the Internet users equipped with good connection speed, industry cannot go much further. Other than that I think eCommerce really needs a boost because that is the main driver of the Internet economy. More eCommerce, more advertising dollars, more business models and more companies. [...]

By: raj

raj — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 13:19:06 +0000

one of the online real estate web portals http://www.chennaitolet.com concentrating more on their local realestate search. they are also move on to other cities in 2007. It helps users search in depth based on areas in the city. is the site really helpful?

By: iLeher » Exclusive interview with redBus.in – India’s first vertical for online bus tickets- All about Internet industry in India

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 21:27:10 +0000

[...] iLeher: Proves that writing code is easy, but evangelizing, selling and keeping customers happy is more challenging, especially in emerging markets. Makes sense to invest in resources that will help in changing the mentality of the people about ecommerce in India. [...]

By: suman

suman — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 15:31:45 +0000

Huh! so the online retail sector is set to take off. Lead the feeding frenzy begin. I think reliance online will be hard to beat if they get the end to end service side of things right. Remember how they bumbled trying to keep their RIM promises.

By: Nishant

Nishant — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 22:35:04 +0000

Having tried to order flowers online, i can share my experience. Onine shopping is still very nascent in india. I agree that we need to have some *amazonish* company to really make it big. The two site Indiatimes and Redif really suck at best in terms of customer friendly site. Maybe I have been spoilt by the site out here in US, but I really got frustated jumping through all the hoops.

Online, I think User Experience and *percieved Security* are the two top ones to hit.

By: Madhur

Madhur — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 07:24:07 +0000

Yes, I agree with you that overall user experience is pretty bad on all the India sites. My appeal here is for all shopping sites across the board since if you are developing an ecommerce site, you cannot ignore either domestic or aboroad audience as the domestic market is set to explode in coming years.

By: Vivek Garg

Vivek Garg — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 06:07:02 +0000

About 35-40 percent of the online transactions on Indian sites are done from abroad - This is no surprise but if you have tried shopping from abroad you must have realized how bad the experience is for this customer segment. Before domestic retail experience I believe there is a potential to tap into this existing cusomter base and establish a brand that can compete and promote domestic online retail.

If i had amazon shipping product in india, i would never order from any indian retail sites. Think amazon like brand. rediff, fabmall etc etc tried but failed. user experience ?